John Dickson > Quotes

“The real power of effective leadership is maximizing other people’s potential which inevitably demands also ensuring that they get the credit. When our ego won’t let us build another person up, when everything has to build us up, then the effectiveness of the organization reverts to depending instead on how good we are in the technical aspects of what we do. And we have stopped leading and inspiring others to great heights.”
― John Dickson, Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love, and Leadership

“Humility is the noble choice to forgo your status, deploy your resources or use your influence for the good of others before yourself.”
― John Dickson, Humilitas: A Lost Key To Life, Love, and Leadership

“Atheism certainly promotes a low view of humanity- how much lower can you get than thinking yourself an accidental by-product of a series of even larger accidents!”
― John Dickson, Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love, and Leadership

“There is an aesthetic dimension to virtue. In real life, as opposed to in celluloid, we are attracted to the good and repelled by the bad. Even the woman who says she prefers the archetypal 'bad boy' probably doesn't actually like it when he is bad toward her.”
― John Dickson, Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love, and Leadership

“Humility applied to convictions does not mean believing things any less; it means treating those who hold contrary beliefs with respect and friendship.”
― John Dickson, Humilitas: A Lost Key To Life, Love, and Leadership

“What the biblical narrative tells me – and, in particular the account of Christ’s passion- is that while I may not be able to trace the artists hand at all times, I can always trust his motives. The God who is in control of all things, who acts behind the scenes in all things, is also the God who willingly suffers. He is the one I can shout at, cry with and find comfort in. His heart, if not all his ways, is clear to me because the cross wore it on his sleeve for all to see. This God is able to sympathise with those who suffer not simply because his is 'all knowing' - an attribute ascribed to any version of divinity - because he has experienced pain first hand.”
― John Dickson

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27).”
― John Dickson, Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History

“while I may not be able to trace the Artist’s hand at all times, I can always trust his motives. The God who is in control of all things, who acts behind the scenes in all things, is also the God who willingly suffers. He is the one I can shout at, cry with and find comfort in.”
― John Dickson, If I Were God, I'd End All the Pain

“Without a life example that speaks louder than words, even the most persuasive leader will fail.”
― John Dickson, Humilitas: A Lost Key To Life, Love, and Leadership

“The antidote to hateful, nationalistic, violent Christianity, Einstein proposed, is Christianity in practice.”
― John Dickson, Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History

“The notion of a carefully prepared exposition of Scripture, which we have equated with “teaching,” is virtually absent from Acts”
― John Dickson, Hearing Her Voice, Revised Edition: A Case for Women Giving Sermons

“The second clue is in 1 Corinthians 14 itself. In verses 3-4 Paul says, “Those who prophesy speak to people for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. Those who speak in a tongue [which is not interpreted] edify themselves, but those who prophesy edify the church”. At the very least, we can say from this that “prophesying” is an intelligible form of speech in church that contributes to the strengthening, encouragement and comfort of the congregation. Broad, I know, but clarifying nonetheless, especially given the “heat” associated with discussion about prophecy.”
― John Dickson, The Best Kept Secret of Christian Mission: Promoting the Gospel with More Than Our Lips

“tomes on the meaning of life. Poets and playwrights were”
― John Dickson, The Christ Files: How Historians Know What They Know about Jesus

“In a morally and religiously diverse culture such as ours, humility is a much-needed key to harmony.”
― John Dickson, Humilitas: A Lost Key To Life, Love, and Leadership

“—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:1—4) It is important to see the logical connection between verses 1—2 and verses 3—4. Why is it good for Christians to pray for “all people”? Because such prayers please the One who desires “all people” to be saved. In other words, prayers for the unbelieving world fulfil the Saviour God’s longing to redeem that world. Praying for those who do not yet believe is actually a way of seeking their salvation. Prayer is not a passive, sideline aspect of evangelistic commitment; it is a fundamental expression of that commitment.”
― John Dickson, The Best Kept Secret of Christian Mission: Promoting the Gospel with More Than Our Lips

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.6”
― John Dickson, Life of Jesus: Who He Is and Why He Matters

“The notion that the gods care how we treat one another would have been dismissed as patently absurd. . . . This was the moral climate in which Christianity taught that mercy is one of the primary virtues—that a merciful God requires humans to be merciful. . . . This was revolutionary stuff. Indeed, it was the cultural basis for the revitalization of the Roman world. (Stark, The Rise of Christianity, 209–15.)”
― John Dickson, A Doubter's Guide to Jesus: An Introduction to the Man from Nazareth for Believers and Skeptics

“My own desire is, for the common good of the world and the advantage of all mankind, that Thy people [Christians] should enjoy a life of peace and undisturbed concord. So let those who still delight in error [the pagan majority] be made welcome to the same degree of peace and tranquility which those who believe have. For it may be that this restoration of equal privileges to all [i.e., the removal of repressions of the Church] will prevail to lead them [pagans] into the straight path. Let no one molest another, but let every one do as his soul desires. . . . We pray, however, that they [pagans] too may receive the same blessing, and thus experience that heartfelt joy which unity of sentiment inspires. . . . Once more, let none use that to the detriment of another which he may himself have received on conviction of its truth; but let everyone, if it be possible, apply what he has understood and known to the benefit of his neighbour. (“Constantine’s Edict to the People of the Provinces on the Error of Polytheism,” Life of Constantine 2.56 in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 512–14.) For”
― John Dickson, A Doubter's Guide to Jesus: An Introduction to the Man from Nazareth for Believers and Skeptics

“In those early years as a believer I had no idea Christians could be coy about their faith. No one had told me I was meant to feel awkward about spreading the good news. That was something I learnt only after mixing with Christians for a while. But I learnt it soon enough.”
― John Dickson, The Best Kept Secret of Christian Mission: Promoting the Gospel with More Than Our Lips

“would go as far as to say that, over time, the number of visitors in our church services is directly proportionate to the level of enthusiasm felt by those who regularly attend.”
― John Dickson, The Best Kept Secret of Christian Mission: Promoting the Gospel with More Than Our Lips

“sermons are at least as different from what Paul called “teaching” as they are from what he called “prophesying.”
― John Dickson, Hearing Her Voice, Revised Edition: A Case for Women Giving Sermons

“Christ wrote a beautiful tune, which the church has often performed well, and often badly. But the melody was never completely drowned out. Sometimes it became a symphony.”
― John Dickson, Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History

“At the risk of sounding like a scratched CD, let me repeat the mission equation: if there is one Lord to whom all people belong and owe their allegiance, the people of that Lord must promote this reality everywhere.”
― John Dickson, The Best Kept Secret of Christian Mission: Promoting the Gospel with More Than Our Lips

“I was speaking to a brand-new Christian who told me about a cocktail party he went to recently. Some of Henry’s friends were a little perplexed by his “finding religion”. One of them said, “Why on earth would you go to church?” Henry threw it straight back at him: “Come with me on Sunday and you can see for yourself!” That is a believer who enjoys his church service! And why wouldn’t he? It was a church service that hooked him in the first place. Henry had not attended church since the enforced chapel services of his Catholic school days. But one day his wife, Sandra, decided she wanted to take the kids to Sunday school-she had been invited to the church by a local school mum. Sandra went and loved it and within a few months found herself trusting in Christ. Naturally, she asked Henry to come along. Reluctantly, he did, and to his surprise he too loved the experience. He couldn’t put his finger on it but something about the singing and the prayers and the preaching (and the people) captivated him. He says it was an hour of depth and solace in an otherwise full and frantic life. Henry came back again and again. He soon found himself joining in with the songs and the prayers and finding that he really meant it. Christ had become real to him. Henry and Sandra have not looked back. They are among the most regular members of my church and remain eager to throw down the challenge to their friends and family: “Come with me on Sunday and you can see for yourself!”
― John Dickson, The Best Kept Secret of Christian Mission: Promoting the Gospel with More Than Our Lips

“Violence has been a universal part of the human story. The demand to love one’s enemies has not. Division has been a norm. Inherent human dignity has not. Armies, greed, and the politics of power have been constants in history. Hospitals, schools, and charity, for all have not. Bullies are common. Saints are not.”
― John Dickson, Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History

“But the problem with a hateful Christian is not their Christianity but their departure from it.”
― John Dickson, Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History

“The tempration of our age is to elevate our particular time and place as the crescendo of human purity and achievement. And that necessarily involves speaking ill of the past.”
― John Dickson, Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History

“This is true of every age. For every Cyril of Alexandria (the bishop when Hypatia was murdered) there was a Basil of Caesarea (who established the first hospital). For every Christian warlord hacking his way through pagan Europe there was a humble preacher standing in his way preferring to die than to kill. We will meet both of these, and more, in the next few chapters.”
― John Dickson, Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History

“pilot announced the problem and added, “There are four of us but only three parachutes. It’s my plane, my parachutes—I have to take one of them.” The others agreed. He strapped the parachute on and jumped to safety. Left on the aircraft were a brilliant professor (a rocket scientist, no less), a minister of religion and a backpacker. The professor jumped to his feet insisting, “I am one of the greatest minds in the country. I must survive. I must take one of the remaining parachutes.” The others agreed. He prepared himself and launched out. The elderly clergyman started to explain to the young traveler, “I’ve lived a long life. I do not fear death. You take the last parachute.” She stopped him mid-sentence with, “No, it’s fine. That brilliant professor just jumped out with my backpack strapped on!”
― John Dickson, Humilitas: A Lost Key To Life, Love, and Leadership

“The temptation of our age is to elevate our particular time and place as the crescendo of human purity and achievement. And that necessarily involves speaking ill of the past.”
― John Dickson, Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History